Flying out of La Guardia

[Squire5000]

With a scheduled arrival by the Nordic (Empress) in Bayonne at 9:30 AM on a Saturday, are we dreaming that we can make a 12:30 PM flight out of La Guardia?

[Catnip]

I would not chance it.

"To live on the land...we must learn from the sea"

(26 prior cruises. Nobody cares, so why list them all?)

[rundogrun]

hmmm...I dunno about not being able to make it. Shouldn't take more than an hour to get to LaGuardia on a Saturday. Tunnels and bridges in and out of Manhattan should be fine.

Flying out of Kennedy might be better...that's a straight shot through Staten Island and onto the Belt Pkwy. Definitely shorter, potentially more dicey, but certainly plenty of time.

The big question is how quickly you can get off the ship.

[Chuck & Phyllis]

I have to assume that you already have your air tickets because if not Newark airport is 15 minutes from Port liberty.

Chuck & Phyllis

[john&kelly]

I'm born & raised in NYC, and I think you should easily make the LaGuardia flight unless there is a major traffic screw-up. Saturday, you should pretty much breeze through.
John

Brilliance- Mediterranean- Venice
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;8;6;19;00;00&timezone=GMT+0100[/img]

[Squire5000]

We'd do Newark, but it's $300 each more to fly into/out of there. We did the Bermuda run last year and flew out of LGA. To play it safe, we made reservations for a 2:30 flight. We were at the airport at 10:15 AM. Made for a long day. The big unkonwn is when we would get off the ship. If we can be on our way by 10, we should be OK.

[trish1c]

Can you get to LGA by 12:30? Maybe, assuming your ship arrives on time, you are amoung the 1st off, & there is no traffic into NYC. Those are huge assumptions.

Can you make a 12:30 flight? Not w/o a helicopter. Domestic check-in is 2 HOURS [I]before[/I] departure. You need to be in the Airport at 10:30! The lines for TSA can be an hour. There's a good chance you won't even get off the ship until then.

Remember this is NY -- they have already had 2 terrorist attacks & tend to take these issues much more seriously than other parts of the country.

The stress associated w/ trying to pull off this long shot would ruin my vacation.

Trish

[john&kelly]

I am amazed at the misinformation. I fly out of Laguardia several times a month, often coming from upstate NY to get to the airport. Domestic flights require a ONE HOUR, not 2 hour early arrival. While, as a police captain, I see that they take security seriously, as they should, it moves quickly.Traffic on a Saturday from your ship should be negligible. As long as the ship arrives on time, and you get off by 10:00 or 10:15, you should make your flight easily.
John

Brilliance- Mediterranean- Venice
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;8;6;19;00;00&timezone=GMT+0100[/img]

[gkrebs]

Squire,

I think you made the right choice. No one knows yet how long it will take to get off the ship in Bayonne, nor what the port facilities are like, or how long it will take to get through customs. JFK would not have been a good choice. The Beltway is almost always crowded no matter what the time or day of week.

Hopefully when you come back you can post and let others know how long it took you, then everyone will have a better indication as to what to expect

[img]http://www.gifs.net/animate/ag00612_.gif[/img]


Gary

Explorer of the Seas 10/24/04
Dawn Princess 10/12/03
Voyager of the Seas 12/01/02
Adventurer of the Seas 4/21/02
Sea Breeze 06/98
Atlantis 06/70

Time to Set Sail

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[Squire5000]

Thanks for everyone's input. We've decided to take a later flight.

While I'm inclined to agree with John&Kelly that we could make the 12:30 flight, as Gkrebs pointed out, Bayonne will be a new experience. I seem to have read or heard somewhere that RCCL will be taking passengers from an initial reception area to the ship via a bus or something like that. If the same is true when you get off, it may not be the same as getting off a ship in Miami or Ft.Lauderdale where you pick up your luggage and grab a cab. We deal with stress all the time, why deal with it when we get off a cruise.

I'll post our experience with the process when we get back. Thanks again.

[trish1c]

John --

I really am not one to transmit misinformation on the boards. If I don't know an answer & post anyway I preface it as my opinion. Here, I was concerned by your characterization of my understanding that domestic check in was 2 hours ahead. Upon reading about your experiences, I checked some airline & airport web sites. This is what I found:

[B]United[/B] classifies Sat, mid day as peak time at LGA. They recommend you arrive 90 minutes before flight time & advise that the wait to get to the counter can be 40 minutes. That leaves less than 1 hour to find your gate, clear TSA & get to the boarding area.

[B]US Air[/B] reccomends you arrive 2 hours in advance at EWR & 1 hour early at LGA. So sue me; I always fly out of EWR.

[B]Continental[/B] also classifies Sat. Mid-day as peak travel time & recommends you arrive at LGA 2 hours before flight time; 2 1/2 hours for EWR.

Based upon all of that 1) I may consider flying out of LGA more often [img]http://messages.cruisecritic.com/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img] 2) I stand by my original post that there are too many variables connected w/ a 12:30 departure from LGA after disembarking in Bayonne at 9:30.

Happy Cruising Squire5000.

Trish

[john&kelly]

I only fly out of there 3-4 timesw a month- often on Saturday-so what do I know. Since you are one of the innumerable know-it-alls around here I don't give a d--- any more- I was trying to help.Just do me a favor and stop beating this thoroughly dead horse. You must be a real treat to be around. I stand by my previous comment, but I'm certainly sorry I got involved, which resulted in having to deal with you.

Brilliance- Mediterranean- Venice
[img]http://escati.linkopp.net/cgi-bin/countdown.cgi?trgb=000000&srgb=00ff00&prgb=0000ff&cdt=2004;8;6;19;00;00&timezone=GMT+0100[/img]

[trish1c]

John --

Let's beat a different horse, shall we? I did not make this personal. You did. You started out w/ a mild insult, escalated to stronger ones & resorted to cursing. If you never posted the snide remark about "so much misinformation", this would have never begun.

My only point was to share my experience which happened to be different from yours. If you read carefully, I conceded that you may be partially correct. In that posture, it seems even more inappropriate for you to attack me.

Even if your experience happens to differ greatly from conventional wisdom, that is no reason to call me names.

I don't have a problem disagreeing with anybody. I will not, however, tolerate being personally insulted.

Believe me, you certainly don't have to deal with me, b/c I will take equally great pains to avoid you.

Trish

[sandhillwings]

Food fight...